Nation's nuke sites vulnerable to disaster

Richard Cole, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published 4:00 am, Monday, July 15, 1996

1996-07-15 04:00:00 PDT UNITED STATES -- LIVERMORE - U.S. nuclear weapons production and storage centers are vulnerable to earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and other natural disasters, government scientists warn.

In worst-case scenarios, damage could spew radioactive material and toxic chemicals into surrounding areas, according to the experts asked by the Department of Energy to evaluate the danger.

"If we had a major earthquake today, we would have some major problems, including possible off-site radioactivity releases," said Murray, chairman of the recent conference on Natural Phenomena Hazards. At Livermore, a small amount of radioactive gas leaked in a 1980 temblor.

While the greatest danger is seismic, other threats include volcanic eruptions and flooding in the West and Northwest, direct hits by cyclones in "Tornado Alley" plants and lightning strikes in Texas and the Southeast.

At the proposed national storage center for radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain, Nev., magma from volcanic activity "could ascend directly through the repository . . . compromising the integrity of the waste isolation system," according to a study done by DOE consultants.

A Senate vote on storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is scheduled for Tuesday.

The most vulnerable sites, however, are many of the nation's two dozen nuclear weapons centers that were hastily built in the 1940s and '50s, when meeting a potential Soviet nuclear threat was a higher priority than protecting the plants against natural catastrophes.

Problems at storage sites

Some have since been shut but still have radioactive material stored on their grounds.

The Rocky Flats, Colo., complex, with its leaky plutonium containers, was earlier identified by the DOE as vulnerable to natural disasters. The studies show concern surrounds other plants as well.

The plant is located near the New Madrid fault, which less than two centuries ago rocked the Midwest with the largest earthquakes in recorded U.S. history. If the fault moves again, the plant is in danger, Hunt said.

"The concern is that you might have enough structural damage that the piping systems that handle (radioactive) gas could potentially crack or release gases," he said.

"That would be a hazard to on-site workers, or if you have enough damage, to off-site areas."

Shutting plant suggested

"They've got a huge surplus of enriched uranium now - they won't need any for 100 years probably," he said.

Another potential problem is the troubled Hanford, Wash., plant, already undergoing a $100 million to $200 million cleanup.

In about 1200 A.D., a rock slide up to 400 million cubic meters in mass blocked the Columbia River, forming a dam that Indians called the "Bridge of Gods."

A similar collapse today could trigger a series of dam failures that would flood the remaining low-lying Hanford reactors, nuclear storage pools and research labs, says James Dukelow of Pacific Northwest Laboratory.

"The upstream dams have the possibility of producing some very catastrophic events," Dukelow said. But he noted that the radiation threat might seem minor compared to the non-nuclear effects of the disaster.

Quakes, tornadoes and lightning

The Savannah River reprocessing plant in South Carolina, where much of the nation's radioactive tritium is stored, has several safety strikes against it. DOE has previously acknowledged its vulnerability to earthquakes.

DOE consultants have also found a potential danger from a direct hit by a tornado, which could collapse a large stack onto tritium storage vaults, releasing the contents. Nine tornadoes have struck on or near the site since 1953.

Richard Hasbrouck, an engineer and lightning expert at Livermore, said increasingly sophisticated electronic equipment exposes Savannah River and other sites to heightened danger from lightning strikes.

"In the old days we had vacuum tubes and very rugged circuits - nowadays we have computers that are much more vulnerable," he said. "If lightning hits the building or power lines, you don't want to have critical safety-control systems damaged."

Lightning is even more of a worry at the Pantex plant in Texas, which experiences about 60 lightning storms a year, according to the May edition of Science Technology Review, Livermore lab's journal.

"The threat of lightning igniting some of the propellants and high explosives stored at the plant is a real concern," the journal reported.

The DOE had never looked systematically at natural hazards before the Clinton administration, says spokeswoman Anne Elliott, and is evaluating the risk.

Price tag in the billions

The final report, scheduled for release in December 1998, is likely to come with a hefty projected price tag to upgrade protection measures, acknowledges Harish Chander, the new seismic safety coordinator for DOE.

"It could be billions," he says.

Dukelow estimated the bill could reach $100 billion.

Maureen Eldredge of the Military Production Network, a coalition of peace groups, environmentalists and residents living near the weapons plants, say the best way to reduce the danger is to halt the weapons production that has lost its Cold War rationale.

DOE is spending its money to produce more nuclear material instead of safeguarding what the nation already has, she said.&lt;

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